The Athletics Department will host a Zumba event for the community Saturday to raise money for the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

Join 'Zumbathon' Saturday to support Make-A-Wish

December 4, 2012

By Kelly Hayes

The Cal State East Bay Athletics Department is set to host Zumbathon this Saturday at Pioneer Gym. The event will benefit the Make-A-Wish Foundation and will precede Pioneer basketball's CCAA doubleheader against Cal State Monterey Bay. Scheduled from 4 to 5:15 p.m., admission for the community exercise event will be $10 for the general public and $5 for students with ID; price includes two tickets to the basketball doubleheader.

The Zumbathon, which will support the Pioneers' efforts to raise money for Make-A-Wish, the Division II Student-Athlete Advisory Council's chosen charity, will feature instruction from Zumba expert Claudia Lira of KO1 Fitness Academy and Cal State East Bay Assistant Athletics Director and former U.S. Olympian Dawn Ellerbe. Both Lira and Ellerbe are certified Zumba instructors.

Participants will work out with Lira and Ellerbe and have a chance to learn a Zumba routine which they will be invited to perform with Lira and other KO1 Fitness instructors during halftime of the women's basketball game.

Zumba is a dance fitness program involving dance and aerobic elements and incorporates choreography from hip-hop, salsa, samba, soca, merengue, Bollywood, mambo and belly dance styles. Set to a variety of Latin and international music selections, Zumba is lauded as easy-to-follow, fun and safe for all fitness levels.

The Zumba event is open to the general public and the university community. Parking is available for $5 (cash only) in Lot A. For more information, contact Dawn Ellerbe at dawn.ellerbe@csueastbay.edu or (510) 885-2542.

California State University, East Bay is the San Francisco East Bay Area's high-access public university of choice. CSUEB serves the region with campuses in Hayward and Concord, a professional development center in Oakland, and an innovative online campus. With an enrollment of more than 14,000, the University offers a nationally recognized freshman year experience, award-winning curriculum, personalized instruction, and expert faculty. Students choose from among more than 100 professionally focused fields of study for which the University confers bachelor's and master's degrees, as well as an Ed.D. in education. Named a "Best in the West" college, as well as a Best Business School, by the influential Princeton Review, Cal State East Bay is among the region's foremost producers of teachers, business professionals and entrepreneurs, public administrators, health professionals, literary and performing artists, and science and math graduates.